Meet the Man Behind Gen-Z’s Version of ‘MTV Cribs’
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“Hey, excuse me, how much do you pay for rent?”
While some might take that question either a faux pas or a conversation killer, for Caleb Simpson, asking it to strangers gave him the career of his dreams. The formula for his videos is simple: he runs up to people on the street and asks how much they pay for rent. If they’re willing to stop, he also asks if he can have a quick tour of their home.
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For Simpson, the desire to peek inside of people’s homes jump-started his career as one of TikTok’s favorite personalities. First launched in 2022, Simpson’s video series has grown his account to 8.3 million followers and averages upwards of 10 million views per video. It’s a veritable Gen-Z MTV Cribs, helped along by appearances by celebrities like Barbara Corchran, Scarlett Johansson, and Dwight Howard. But while Simpson’s series has become so popular that his videos have become a one-stop shop for celebrities wanting to give their fans an inside look, the 32-year-old’s career started with what he calls “failure after failure” followed by one lightbulb moment.
Simpson says he came up with his first real estate video while he was doing a “hard push” at content — daily mishmashes of stunt, reaction, and comedy videos — essentially, throwing video ideas at the wall and hoping something would land. But after failing to connect, he asked his other video production friends if they had any advice. Their answer: “Make something you want to see.”
Following TikTok’s rise in popularity after the Covid-19 pandemic, creators gained massive followings from man-on-the-street style content, interviewing strangers in city centers about anything from favorite restaurants to dating styles. It was while he was watching one such video that Simpson got an idea. “I was like, I’m really tired of the street interviews,” he tells Rolling Stone. “I want to see more of these people’s lives. That would be interesting to me.”
It’s one thing to ask a stranger how much they pay in rent, but Simpson wanted to take it a step further. So he decided to ask people if they’d let him tour their homes. “That first day I went out and tried to ask like 100 people and most people just told me ‘Haha, fuck off,” he says. “And then finally I got someone to say yes, and we went filmed it. But I still posted all those other clips of asking people, and they all went extremely viral. And I’d been making videos long enough that I understood: This was the moment.” After his first few videos — ones touring a duplex in Fort Greene, Brooklyn; a studio apartment with a private terrace; and a 95-square-foot micro apartment — people began to recognize Simpson on the street and invite him to tour their homes. Now, he doesn’t have to find people on the street in order to film videos, but sometimes it’s just more fun.
Simpson credits his insatiable interest in people’s lives to his upbringing. The middle child of nine kids, he grew up in a small town in North Carolina, where he was homeschooled by his parents. “I think that’s the reason for my curiosity for the world and exploring it so much,” he tells Rolling Stone. “Because I was just at home and I always wanted to be out in the world and see what it’s like out there.” Simpson took his fascination with cameras along with him to Methodist University in North Carolina, where he jokes that he majored in “binge drinking.” But the end of college put him at a crossroads. “I barely graduated school,” he says. “And that’s when I had to make a choice like, do I want to be an active member of society or not?”
He moved to New York, where in between managing a tennis club and trying to pay his bills on time, he went on what he calls a “tunnel vision” crash course on becoming a creator. But while he went on his journey, Simpson also describes a personality transformation, one that took him from “old Caleb” to a “new Caleb” ready to work towards his goals. And then his “aha” moment hit. Since Simpson’s series has grown, she’s toured Matt Rife’s tour bus, grabbed a slice of pizza with Quavo, and had Drew Barrymore test out how soft his bed is. But while Simpson’s page has become a popular stop for celebrities of all stripes, he’s adamant that it not become all about unattainable mansions.
“Society hasn’t really seen inside [normal] people’s homes,” he says. “Every show has been [about] lifestyles of the rich and famous. It hasn’t been, ‘Let me check out my neighbor’s home.’ No one’s seen that and we can all relate to that.”
Simpson notes that a lot of the continued interest in the series is the relatability of discussing average apartments, especially in cities like New York. “This is a throughline everyone has. We all live in a box so we can all relate to that,” he says. “Everyone’s always discussing rent.” But his favorite part might be how his videos have become a platform for others to shine. “It’s been fun to watch because a lot of people have gotten opportunities [from my videos],” he says. “There are job opportunities. Some people start social media careers. One person sold like half a million dollars worth of art after one video. So it really just gives a person an opportunity to shine, if they have something to show the world.”
Since the exponential rise of the apartment tours, Simpson has expanded the series to other cities outside of the U.S., like Tokyo, London, and Sydney. In fact, the series has grown so much that Simpson now spends a good portion of his time turning people down. But perhaps what he’s most proud of through this journey is how he’s grown. Not as a creator, but as an adult finally ready to take charge of his life.
“I think old Caleb was scared to see what his potential was. And scared to try and put himself out there over and over and over and over and just like see what would happen. And maybe he would rather make excuses, you know?” he says. “New Caleb doesn’t make excuses and is still scared. But he tries.”
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